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Advice, please!

We have a small two-bedroom house. The girls will have to share a room. Right now, Ginger is sleeping in our room, but she will take an occasional nap in her crib in Ruby’s room just fine. How do I transition her into the room for night time sleeping?

Complications:

Ginger goes to bed earlier and wakes earlier than Ruby. I don’t think its possible to shift either girls’ schedule right now.

Ruby talks/reads/sings herself to sleep for about an hour.

Ginger hits a light sleep period at just about the time Ruby goes to bed.

What do we do when Ginger starts teething and wakes up in the middle of the night?

Her morning espresso

I think I’m most concerned about the mornings. I think the plan is to set up the monitor in their room, so we can run in there and grab Gigi before she wakes up Ruby. I hope.

Like this:

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10 thoughts on “Advice, please!”

If you’re really concerned about Ruby waking Ginger up, my suggestion would be to let Ruby have her “unwinding” time outside of the bedroom. Then, after Ginger is asleep, (very quietly) tuck Ruby in for bed… you can make a game out of how quiet you can be. Maybe in the living room you can bring in a special blanket and pillow to set up a little (temporary) quiet time area just for her… maybe even a special night light. If they’re in the same room together there’s not a lot you can do if one wakes up the other at any given time. That’s the nature of the beast. My 3 boys sleep in the same room and the 2 older ones sleep right through the babies crying now. Eventually they get used to it. Personally, I have all my boys on the same schedule, but that’s what works for us. Every family is different. I hope that helps!

hmmm, is there space in your room to set up the crib in there for Ginger? It seems like it would be easier than having to deal with schedules, night wakings, teething and whatnot. If you’re going to be waking up to go get Ginger before she wakes Ruby up, then it seems easier to get her from a crib in your room than from the other room. Once they are on a similar schedule, then the transition may be easier.

Disclaimer: I’m a lazy parent. It has just never seemed worth the energy necessary to have Z in her own room the whole night. She goes to bed in her room at 8:30 and falls asleep quickly (especially now that she no longer naps) so we have nice evenings alone. She slips into our room at some point while we’re sleeping and it’s not worth our loss of sleep (at this point) to take her back to her room, especially since I’m unconscious when she comes into our bed.

Good idea, Laurel, but there is no room in our bedroom for a crib. Right now Ginger is in a co-sleeper, which is great, but even that is very crowded. She’s almost reached the limits for that though! She’s starting to roll over and is very long.

I have just had a new baby myself, and one thing that I found very surprising is how much noise an older child will sleep through. Our older boy, who up until the birth of the second one I had to tip toe around, suddenly turned into an impenetrable sleeper. We all 4 sleep in the same room, the older boy’s bed right next to ours, the baby in bed with us. The oldest has a night-time routine when dad reads with him right before bed and after that it’s quiet time no questions asked. Plus, we’re working on building a respectful attitude towards the baby’s sleep, “because babies grow when they sleep and he needs a lot of sleep to grow up big and strong just like you are”. The oldest one is 4 though, so I don’t know how much any of those tips are applicable to a younger child. But good luck none-the-less!

We need to transition Abbie to her Madelynn’s room as well. She is in our room in a crib but is not sleeping through the night. I believe because she knows we are right there. I have mixed emotions about having 2 kids not sleeping through the night especially because I am working. I think we are going to brave it out over Thanksgiving or the Christmas holiday. I would love to hear how it works for you.